Lavern De Vries
30 June 2009
Gun owners from across Cape Town have been streaming into dealerships in the vain hope of retrieving the weapons they either sold or handed over voluntarily, in the wake of a Pretoria High Court ruling that the old licences are still valid.
Previously, gun owners who missed the deadline for licence renewals were expected to hand in their weapons to police by midnight on Tuesday.
But that changed with the High Court ruling on Friday, after police were apparently unable to cope administratively with the licensing burden, in line with the Firearms Control Act.
It is understood that provincial police have received a national directive saying that weapons voluntarily handed over will not yet be destroyed, pending the outcome of the main court application, which challenges the constitutionality of the Firearms Control Act.
But police have warned that this does not mean that people who handed in their guns can now retrieve them, even though they have not yet been destroyed.
Gun shops across the city have reportedly fielded questions from former owners asking about the ruling.
"In most cases they can't get them back because the guns have been taken off their names," said Joe Da Silva, owner of Parow Arms gun dealership.
In its application on Friday, the South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association maintained that the transitional arrangements of the new act infringed on the rights of gun owners.
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